Fear conquered
by Michele
Summary: The turbo lift crashes on the USS Voyager. While stuck inside Janeway and Chakotay have to resolve their fears of a relationship while Janeway is injured and near death. Fears exists to be conquered!


_The characters and the Star Trek thing does not belong to the author, however the story does belong to the author. If you want to post it somewhere else-go ahead but please let me know-thanks._

Now sit back, have a cup of coffee(Janeway style) and enjoy the show!

* * *

The turbo lift jolted and stopped. Everything had gone dark except for the emergency lights in the corner of the lift. The two of them stood helplessly trying to get the communications up and running, but they had no success. She finally accepted the fact that they were going to be there for a while. Abruptly the turbo lift jumped up and down and threw them off of their feet. The last thing she recalled was the sudden plummet, the extreme pain and then the darkness that engulfed her. 

Chakotay groaned as he started to regain consciousness. He frowned as he became aware of the stinging sensation above his right eye, blood dripped from it and smeared across his face. It was more of an irritation than a wound and tried to ignore it as he scanned the lift for Kathryn. The turbo lift was a complete mess with a nest of wires, cables and metals intertwined with each other. At the far end of the lift he thought he saw a movement. He wiped the blood from his eyes but there was no doubt about it, it was Kathryn. He rushed to her side and disentangled her from the wreckage. She had sustained injuries the most visible of these was the gash on her forehead and the large metallic object that penetrated her leg. By some small miracle he had managed to stall the bleeding momentarily but the fact of the matter was that he didn't have the equipment to do it properly. Finally he rested himself against the wall; the bleeding had started again and there was no way that he could stop it. He had applied pressure and used linen to reduce the amount of blood she lost but it still oozed out of her leg. The best thing he could to now was hope and pray that the crew would get to them in time.

A slight moan came from Kathryn's mouth as she started to wake up. She couldn't pinpoint where she was or how she got there. The only thing she knew for sure was the fact that her entire body felt numb. She tried to move but pain greeted her and washed over her like a wave. As if sensing it; Chakotay was at her side.

" Don't try to move Kathryn," he said.

" What … happened?"

" We were on our way to the bridge -"

" Code red," she confirmed. " I remember now. Any luck on the communication?"

" Negative, must still be busy with it." Kathryn moved slightly to catch a glimpse of her wound. She grimaced at the sight of it.

" It's worse than it looks," she lied. She was in excruciating pain, but she refused to show any weakness. " Guess we're going to be stuck here for a while."

" Yea, just hope they find sooner than later." He was afraid what would happen if they didn't arrive soon enough there was a big possibility that Kathryn would bleed to death.

Time dragged on and it became evident that Kathryn became weaker by every moment. He didn't like the look of this and he hated that he wasn't able to control the situation. He wanted to do something but what?

" Chakotay," she whispered in a raspy voice.

" Yes?"

" I want you to promise me something, that when you get out of here you'll get the grew home safely."

" Don't say your goodbyes, cause you're going to survive and make it through this. Come on Kathryn, you've made it through situations million times worse than this one. You're going to make it through a little turbo lift incident." I hope. She grunted as another wave of pain hit her and the tears rolled across her cheeks. There was nothing worse than the continuous numbness of endless pain. There was no release.

Chakotay stared at her. He hated this! He was so damn helpless to help her he couldn't do a thing to ease the pain. Her face seemed to relax again and a strange calmness radiated from her face. She looked more beautiful than ever before and her wanted to tell her desperately but how would she react. There might never be another chance, impulsively he kissed her and a weak response greeted him.

"Tuvok to Chakotay, are you all right Commander?"

" I am fine but the Captain needs medical assistance immediately. Are the transporters on line?"

" Yes they are, prepare to be beamed to sickbay."

* * *

"How is she, doctor?" Chakotay asked after he had been permitted to enter sickbay again. 

" She's going to do fine. She has recovered and is in perfect health. However, she does have short-term memory loss - but that isn't serious. She'll be able to return to duty after I've finished running some tests."

" Thank you doctor." Short-term memory loss? Does this mean that she can't remember what happened in the turbo lift? For the first time I've opened up to my feelings for her and then she can't even remember it! I hate this; it's frustrating not to be able to tell her this. Who knows how she would react?

He sighed and left. This was something that he'll have to worry about later, for now there were more important and urging matters that called his attention.

* * *

It had been a week after the turbo lift accident and Kathryn hadn't had a nights rest since then. She had been haunted by dreams, well it wasn't unpleasant dreams but it scared her to think about it. She didn't want her emotion to show, she still wanted to be that Captain that had everything in control and seemed to know what she was doing. In truth she was only human  
with human shortcomings. 

Her ready room's door beeped.

"Enter," Janeway said. It was Seven of Nine. She entered in her confidant stride and seemingly arrogant manner.

" Captain," she started. " I have that report you wanted."

" Seven, would you please talk to Chakotay about it. I am not feeling up to it today. To tell you the truth I haven't had a good nights rest in almost a week. I think that Chakotay will give the attention to the report that it deserves."

" All right, Captain."

Seven of Nine made her way to the mess hall and found the Commander on one of the tables having his lunch.

" Commander," she said. " The Captain said that I should give you my report, she's not feeling ... up to it."

" Oh? What's the matter?" he asked.

" She said that she didn't have surfactant sleep the last week." Neelix walked up to the table and brought Seven one of his delicacies.

" Neelix," Chakotay said. " Do you know that the Captain has had difficulties sleeping?"

" No Commander, but I know that she hasn't come to the mess hall for a meal in days. Frankly I am starting to get worried - maybe I should go and talk to her ..."

" Don't worry about it, I'll have a chat with her," Chakotay replied.

Chakotay made his way to Kathryn's quarters. Well that was a good sign - maybe she was sleeping-no such luck. He entered the room and found it dimly lit with Kathryn sitting at the far end looking at the stars.

"Chakotay, have you ever had a dream that plagued you mind that you couldn't function normally?"

" I believe I have. Is that the reason for your strange behavior?"

"...Yes..."

"Kathryn I need to confess something that has been troubling since the turbo lift accident," Chakotay said as he sat next to her. " If you're angry with me I'll understand and I -"

" Just tell me."

" Before the communications were reestablished ...we kissed." Chakotay waited for Kathryn to explode, to carry on about protocol but it didn't come.

" Well that explains it," she mumbled.

" Explains what?"

" The dream that I told you about-it was about us kissing. I couldn't understand where it came from or why I was dreaming it but it makes perfect sense now. I never knew I had feelings for you until now and it frightens me to think about it."

" Kathryn, you've...we've been alone for so long ... it's worth a shot, isn't it? What is there to lose?"

" I ...don't..." Chakotay put his arms around her and kissed her. At first she resisted but then she returned his kiss and let her guard down for the first time since they've been stranded.

" Tuvok to the Captain I think there's something that you might want to see on the bridge."

Kathryn pulled away from Chakotay and smiled at him.

" I'll be right there."

_**"Fear exists for one purpose: to be conquered"**_


End file.
